


Data Sanctuary

by Stariceling



Category: Rockman.EXE | Mega Man Battle Network
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Missing Scene, Protectiveness, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-30
Updated: 2012-06-30
Packaged: 2017-12-06 04:51:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/731625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stariceling/pseuds/Stariceling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Blues and Rockman provide shelter for one another in the worst of times. Hint of Blues/Rockman, spoilers for first anime series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First part references episode 25 of the first series. Rockman couldn't revive until after Blues had rescued him.

There had been a piece of Rockman in his PET. Blues was sure of it. Enzan-sama had never said a word about it, and so he never brought it up either, but all the way down to his core Blues remained convinced.

The ring had appeared in the corner of his screen a little while after Rockman was deleted. There was nothing he could do to analyze it or make it budge, but they had other things to worry about at the time. Especially once they found out there was a chance to repay Rockman and Pharaohman both, in appropriately different ways of course.

In that moment when he had held Rockman’s unresponsive frame, even though it was just long enough to get him to safely, Blues felt as if something had passed through him into Rockman. He knew without checking that the stubborn piece of hard-coded data that had appeared in his PET had gone back to Rockman. He knew without asking that it had been a piece of Rockman all along.

He didn’t know how he ended up with that tiny piece of Rockman. Maybe because Rockman had been touching him in the moment when he was deleted. Maybe because they had imprinted on each other somehow, fighting together. Maybe a stray piece of Rockman had just found him somehow, and recognized him enough to latch on.

Blues told himself it didn’t matter, it was over and done. But sometimes. . .

When Rockman had a close call he remembered that instant when that last fragment of Rockman’s data had left its place in his PET to make the other navi whole again. When he had a brush with deletion himself there was a tiny part of him that wanted to find sanctuary with Rockman, if the worst happened. And when he was alone in his PET, with the lights dimmed into sleep mode, he was reminded of the fact that part of Rockman had been there with him, and the fact that he never would be again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on episode 51. When Rockman absorbs all of the lost data, he takes in what is left of Blues as well.

Blues drifted, himself and yet no longer himself, inside the program that had devoured him.

He didn’t remember being devoured. He didn’t remember being himself, too fragmented after being absorbed to even know himself if he should come across himself. Yet there was an endless, hungry, searching longing. A part that could not be dissolved and re-formed because its purpose was too powerful. It was nothing but yearning, and the thing it yearned for was not there, and might not have been recognized even if it was.

Blues was nothing but searching, finding bits and pieces that had been other navis and viruses and pieces of the city and once or twice even scraps of his own disassembled program, leaving them and forgetting almost instantly that they had touched him at all. Nothing calmed him. Nothing completed him.

And then Rockman came. Blues knew Rockman, recognized the other navi when he was absorbed for a second time, as he had recognized nothing else. Maybe because Rockman was whole, more than whole after absorbing all of the fragmented data and the remainder of Internet City on top of it. Maybe because that piece of Rockman had been in his PET, once. Not that he could remember that. Whatever was left of Blues’s memory was elsewhere, shorn from him until he didn’t even know he’d had memory to lose.

But the longing in Blues recognized Rockman around him. No need for memory. This was sanctuary. The sanctuary he had thought about a thousand times without even recognizing it. Even when he forgot his own name and form and that short time living in his PET with bits and pieces of Rockman’s data, and even forgot the fact that he had been a navi at all, he knew sanctuary when it surrounded him.

It wasn’t recognition of a name or form, just the fact that Rockman was. Blues, the restless need that was left of him, trusted this thing that felt real would show him what he searched for, if it existed.

With little more than a thought Rockman swept him up and put him back together, plucking out scattered bits and pieces of Blues’s program to reunite them. With very little fuss, Blue simply was again. The longing met memory and self and even most of his frame, along with the sudden resurge of horror and pain of being ripped apart and absorbed.

Pain was removed with a careless whim, wiped out so that Blues hardly knew it had been there at all. If Rockman had wanted to rewrite him, it would have happened faster than thought. Blues was still inside of Rockman, still part of him, but separate enough to be aware of himself again.

Blues finally had enough of himself to understand what was happening. Sort of. Rockman had taken in every last scrap of fragmented data. He couldn’t leave things the way they were. Now Rockman was scared and slowly being overwhelmed. It was all he could do not to start re-writing and fixing things that didn’t need fixing, the way he had deleted the part of Blues that was pain.

To save Rockman, to help him save everything, Blue was ready to give him everything. The longing that had been all he was until just a nanosecond ago. Longing for his operator, for home, for being whole again, and even that secret, unspoken desire to be safe inside Rockman, as he had once had a fragment of Rockman to watch over himself. Blues gave it all up willingly, surprised at how powerful it all was once he was able to judge it, once that longing wasn’t all that he was.

It might not have been enough, if Net hadn’t been there too. As it was, Rockman calmed, and focused, and the world exploded.

That was how it felt to Blues, anyway. One instant he was part of Rockman, scrabbling to hold onto himself and give himself to the other navi all at once. The next he was only himself, supported by the shockingly solid data field that made up the city. And the city was there again, or still, he wasn’t sure. And everywhere other navis were looking around, confused at the feeling of being suddenly whole again.

Rockman was there too, shaky on his feet until Blues caught him. He didn’t know how he had the energy to support Rockman, but once the other navi was in his arms he found the strength somehow. Relief that Rockman had also come back in one piece made him feel stronger.

“I have to get back to. . .” Rockman started, and paused when he realized who had him.

“I know.”

The moment of understanding between them didn’t surprise Blues. Their needs had matched, after all. The need to be put back together so that they could return to the operators that they each loved in the same way.

What did surprise him was when Rockman turned and hugged him hard. He was making his beloved operator wait, was all Blues could think. For this, Rockman would make Net wait?

Maybe they were more alike than Blues had realized. He had only been able to feel at rest once he was inside of Rockman. Now Rockman pressed into his arms, once again seeking a temporary sanctuary.


End file.
